Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Freedom Cry

Ubisoft Montreal’s Assassin’s Creed games have tackled delicate historical territory in the past, but never as directly as in Freedom Cry, an add-on pack for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag explicitly focused on the liberation of Caribbean slaves in the mid-1700s.

The story, set a decade after the events of Black Flag, stars Adewale, the baritone voiced, immense-of-stature fellow who served as Edward Kenway’s quartermaster and right hand on the Jackdaw for most of the main game.

Now a sworn Assassin and pirate captain himself, the scarred and menacing looking Adewale finds himself stranded in the French-controlled town of Port-au-Prince, where plantations are big business and slaves are being shipped in by the hundreds.

He quickly establishes an alliance with a black madam who runs a local brothel. Their agendas are distinct, and trust is an issue, but they are in agreement on one key matter: Something must be done to protect and save the town’s slave population from their cruel masters.

The evil business of slavery is evident at every turn.

Human auctions take place on the streets, their beaten subjects’ heads hung low, not daring to look anywhere but the planks of the platforms beneath their feet.

Escapees are frequently seen running for their lives, being chased by masters intent on killing them when caught.

There are slave ships, too. The darkest scene in the game, which is now burned into my memory, involves boarding one of these boats as it’s sinking. Dozens of men are chained below deck, many already dead. The survivors are in danger of being consumed by fire or drowning in the quickly rising water. It’s impossible to save them all.

It is with grim satisfaction, then, that we step into the boots of Adewale, a massive, physically scarred man who was born into slavery and now finds himself playing the role of liberator.

With his heavy steel machete and thundering blunderbuss he plays judge, jury, and executioner to the cruel masters, overseers, and jailers in charge of Port-au-Prince’s slave population.

He’s not the most graceful or subtle of the franchise’s many Assassins, but he is a man of courage and honour, devoted to his creed. He is also almost certainly the most physically intimidating of the series’ protagonists, and a fittingly terrifying instrument of justice to punish those who choose to look upon him as something less than human.

It’s a shame, then, that Freedom Cry‘s action doesn’t quite live up to its promising premise and hero.

Don’t get me wrong: You’ll get to do many of the things that make Black Flag one of the best games of the year. The relatively small slice of sea you explore here has a little of everything found in the main game, from a diving bell mission to sea creature hunts to lonely desert isles bearing long lost treasure chests.

Plus, the Freedom Cry team took the time to subtly tweak the formula established in the main game. The long swims back to your boat after visiting remote islands, for example, are no longer a necessity, thanks to generous placement of fast-travel rowboats, which can be found on virtually every beach.

And yet it’s introduced more problems than it’s solved.

The changes made to our main character’s animations have brought with them some noticeable glitches.

Engaged in fights, Adewale would sometimes rapidly disappear and reappear, almost as though trying to perform multiple moves simultaneously. It can make melee combat a rather disconcerting experience.

And for some reason it’s frustratingly easy for scouts to knock Adewale out of their crow’s nest perches as he scrambles onto their platforms and gains his feet, sending him crashing down hard on the deck below. This was never a problem in the dozens of hours I spent with Black Flag.

What’s more, slave ship battles are frustratingly difficult compared to Black Flag‘s naval combat, mostly because you must take on their escort vessels first. These escorts can only be sunk, not salvaged to restore your ship’s health. That means you’ll need to sink a trio of enemy ships (at minimum) before you can board your target ship, which proves a very tall order early on when you’ve yet to upgrade your boat.

The biggest problem, though, is a lack of cohesion. All of the side activities you can get up to in Black Flag seem to have purpose and function as integral parts of the whole, leading to vital growth and upgrades.

In Freedom Cry they often seem to exist simply to pad out the experience.

I discerned no real reason to hunt whales and sharks other than that it was something I was permitted to do. And cash rolls in so quickly that I felt no need to go in search of treasure chests, save simply to tick off another checkbox.

And while the new slave saving opportunities are gripping and carry a strong sense of urgency – not just because they’re fresh to the experience but also due to their morally compelling nature – they’re far too frequent. So frequent, in fact, that I couldn’t keep up with them, especially in Port-au-Prince, where I would no sooner free a trio of slaves near one house than find a freshly spawned quartet in need of help at the one beside it.

There were many times that I just wanted to move on to my next mission but found myself morally obligated to stop, over and over again, to help people who would certainly die if I didn’t intervene.

Freedom Cry is surprisingly long for an add-on pack – over six hours, by my count (perhaps because I spent so much time on the optional task of freeing randomly encountered slaves) – and manages to deliver an emotional story with a daunting, interesting hero who could easily carry his own full-length game.

And yet I didn’t feel as engaged playing it as I did Black Flag.

It’s not because I’ve had my fill of pirate-themed high jinks. In fact, after finishing Freedom Cry I jumped straight back into Black Flag and it felt terrific. I didn’t want to put the controller down. It’s still one of my favourite interactive adventures of 2013.

Despite it’s narrative strength, Freedom Cry somehow lacks the polish and teleological glue of the game upon which it builds.

It’s worth a look, but it just isn’t quite up to Black Flag‘s impeccable standards.